The present invention relates to a generation controller for a vehicle and more particularly to a generation controller for a vehicle suitable for a concentrated wiring system of a charging generator or dynamo for a vehicle.
With respect to a generator for a vehicle, there is known a technique as described in JP-A-60-16195 in which states of an internal Combustion engine and electrical loads are detected to control an output of the generator in response to the states.
On the other hand, U.S. Pat. No. 4,459,489 discloses a technique that a rising rate of consumption torque of a generator upon application of an electrical load is suppressed to thereby prevent reduction of an idle rotational speed of an internal combustion engine.
Further, a trial that electrical wiring of a vehicle is concentrated by means of the serial transmission technique is described in, for example, JP-B-3-15866 (corresponding to JP-A-59-167151).
In JP-A-60-16195, however, since application states of a plurality of electrical loads are observed to grasp a target generation voltage, it is necessary to draw a large number of electrical wiring conductors into a controller, so that wiring is complicated.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,459,489, since application of electrical loads is detected on the basis of rapid reduction of a battery voltage, the application of the electrical loads can be detected by means of only the generator. Accordingly, there is a merit that it is not necessary to draw many electrical wiring conductors, whereas since load response control is started after the electrical loads are applied, the rotational speed of an internal combustion engine is not avoided from being reduced to some degree until the load response control is started.
In addition, since an increasing pattern of a current is different depending on kinds of electrical loads, an increasing rate of electrical loads, that is, an increasing rate of consumption torque of the generator and an increasing rate of a fuel supply rate to an internal combustion engine are not necessarily coincident with each other and it is unavoidable that a degree of reduction of the rotational speed of the internal combustion engine is different depending on kinds of electrical loads.
Furthermore, any of the above-mentioned techniques merely controls energization to the electrical loads and does not consider that it is judged which electrical load is controlled in what manner by the generator as an electric power supply source.
Further, a battery charging generator of a vehicle is normally operated by means of an internal combustion engine for driving the vehicle and there is a problem that when an output generated by the generator is changed due to any cause, its driving torque is also varied to thereby produce a variation in the rotational speed of the internal combustion engine. With regard to this problem, the above-mentioned U.S. Pat. No. 4,459,489 discloses-that a variation in an output voltage of the generator is detected and rising of an output of the generator is intentionally delayed to suppress rapid rising of a driving torque.
In this method, however, since the rising is delayed after the torque has been varied due to application of the electrical loads, it is unavoidable to reduce the rotational speed of the engine to some degree. Further, there is an practical problem that, for example, when a headlight is lighted at night and a heavy electrical load such as a heater is then turned on, a voltage of a battery is dropped temporarily (about 1 to 10 seconds) since the load response operation is slow and the headlight becomes dark during the drop of the battery voltage, so that the driver feels apprehensions.